THE CHAIRMAN of a leading Leicestershire travellers’ group has suggested new sites are desperately needed in the borough.

THE CHAIRMAN of a leading Leicestershire travellers’ group has suggested new sites are desperately needed in the borough.

But Alfie Kefford, 45, from the Leicestershire Travellers’ Liaison Group, believes that tentative plans to build a caravan site in Earl Shilton could be a white elephant.

Mr Kefford, 45, said that while the travelling community was in dire need of more pitches, smaller sites were usually better.

Asked if traveller families would move to a proposed, super-site on the edge of Earl Shilton, Alfie said: “Not ­really, no.

“If one family doesn’t get along with another family then they won’t move there.

“I know of a few elderly people and they would love to move to a council-run site but it would have to be a smaller site.

“I don’t know anybody who would move to a larger site.

“Smaller sites are better. They are much more controllable.” Mr Kefford runs Rosevale Park in Aston Firs, a travellers’s site for born-again Christians and, despite having room for 55 caravans, it is packed.

“The situation with the availability of sites is getting pretty bad,” he said.

“The council keeps coming up with proposals for sites, and the local community keeps shouting them down.”

Mr Kefford believes that the reasons behind the public outcry are often unfair and inaccurate.

“I’m not having a go, but if some of the things being said about travellers were said about Muslims then there would be prosecutions,” he said.

“I’m not saying we’re perfect; there’s good and bad in every race.

“What I am saying is that travellers have been here for more than 500 years and people need to give them a bit more respect.

“We run a group called the Leicestershire Gipsy Liaison Group – we meet again in January, and anybody is welcome to come and listen to people’s views.”

Chris Whitwell, director of nation­al charity Friends, Families and Travellers, said that providing more pitches made good economic sense.

“Potentially, there are 25,000 people with nowhere they can call home, and they are constantly moved from one site to another.

“This endless merry-go-round costs taxpayers £18 million a year.”

Mr Whitwell said that a lack of permanent sites contributed to recent statistics that showed the life expectancy of a traveller was 20 years below the national average.

“If you think that the government wants to build three million more houses, that means that all you have to do is provide one pitch for every 750 homes built. In that context it is not a big deal.

“Isn’t it about time we started welcoming them in to the community, rather than trying to put them next to motor­ways, sewage farms and refuse tips?”